* Today in Black History - January 17 *
1759 - Paul Cuffe is born in Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts. He will become
a successful shipowner, philanthropist, and a force in the
movement for African Americans' repatriation to Africa.
1874 - Armed white Democrats seize the Texas government and put an end
to Radical Reconstruction in Texas.
1917 - The United States pays $ 25 million for the Danish Virgin
Islands.
1923 - The NAACP's Spingarn Medal is awarded to George Washington
Carver, head of the department of research, Tuskegee Institute,
for his pioneering work in agricultural chemistry.
1923 - The first session of the Third Pan-African Congress convenes in
London, England. The second session will be held in Lisbon.
1924 - Jewel Plummer Cobb is born in Chicago, Illinois. She will be
a prominent cancer research biologist before becoming a
professor and administrator at Connecticut College and Rutgers
University and, in 1981, president of California State
University, Fullerton, the first African American woman to hold
such a position in the CSU system.
1931 - James Earl Jones is born in Arkabutla, Mississippi. He will
become renowned as an actor, both on the stage and the screen,
earning a Tony award in 1969 for his portrayal of boxing
great Jack Johnson in the "The Great White Hope" as well as
acclaim for his Broadway roles in "A Lesson From Aloes,"
"Fences," and many others. Among his film and television
credits will be the voice of Darth Vader in "Star Wars" and
leading roles in "Paris" and "Gabriel's Fire."
1931 - Lawrence Douglas Wilder is born in Richmond, Virginia. He will
graduate from Virginia Union University and serve in the U.S.
Army in Korea, where he will receive the Bronze Star for heroism.
He will attend and graduate from, the Howard University School
of Law and become a successful trial attorney. In 1969, he will
be elected as Virginia's first African American state senator
since Reconstruction. In 1985, he will become Virginia's first
African American Lieutenant Governor. He will make history for
a third time on January 13, 1990, when he takes office as the
first elected African American governor in U.S. history.
1942 - Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. is born in Louisville, Kentucky.
Early in his boxing career, Clay converts to Islam. As Muhammad
Ali, he is one of the first African American athletes to
intermingle political and social consciousness with sports. He will
become the dominant heavyweight boxer of the 1960s and 1970s,
winning an Olympic gold medal, capturing the professional world
heavyweight championship on three separate occasions, and defend
his title successfully 19 times. Ali's extroverted, colorful style,
both in and out of the ring, will introduce a new mode of media-
conscious athletic celebrity. Through his strong assertions of
black pride, his conversion to the Muslim faith, and his outspoken
opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali will become a highly
controversial symbol of the turbulent 1960s.
1961 - Patrice Lumumba, African revolutionary and first Congolese Premier
of the Republic of Congo, joins the ancestors after being
murdered at the age of 36, by the soldiers of the secessionist
Tshombe's soldiers.
1966 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. opens his civil rights campaign in
Chicago, Illinois. This marks the first time, during the civil
rights movement, that the campaign takes place in a northern
city.
1970 - John M. Burgess is installed as bishop of the Protestant Episcopal
diocese of Massachusetts.
1978 - Dr. Ronald McNair is named by NASA as a participant on a space
mission.
1989 - The Phoenix Suns/Miami Heat game is cancelled, due to racial
unrest in Miami.
1990 - The Four Tops, Hank Ballard, and The Platters are inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1996 - Former U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan joins the ancestors in
Austin, Texas, at the age of 59.
1998 - Louis Stokes, the first African American congressman from the
state of Ohio, announces his retirement from Congress at the
age of 73. He has been a congressman for three decades.
2000 - Nearly 50,000 people march to South Carolina's Statehouse on
Martin Luther King Day to demand the Confederate battle flag be
taken down. They are protesting Confederate flag as a symbol of
slavery and racism.
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